I think many of the Michigan members know DLBerlin. Debbie has been a long time supporter of the reefing scene in Michigan. She ran a successful online store called DIYReef.com for several years. Although many of folks know, maybe not all of you know, that Debbie had an aneurysm last month...fortunately after being airlifted to University of Michigan Hospital, emergency surgery, and a couple week stay in the intensive care unit, Debbie is finally home and recovering. Unfortunately, with her husband laid off and not employed herself, she did not have health insurance. While I'm sure our small community cannot begin to touch what she owes on the medical bills, I would like to try to raise a little money to help her out.
So, here is how we are going to do it. As you may have seen, CR just launched two new areas of the site: Reefing auctions and non-reefing marketplace (visible under "Market" on the navbar). Members wanting to help will designate in their ads on these two areas that the item is for DLBerlin Benefit. For example, if I were starting an auction for ppe's the title of the auction would read "Purple People Eaters - DLBerlin Benefit". Note you can also donate sales non-reefing items designated as "DLBerlin Benefit". By doing so, you would be committing to donate 100% of the proceeds, less shipping and paypal costs to DLBerlin. I will set up a special paypal address soon that once you have collected the funds, you will forward the donation to that address...you can select "gift" with paypal to avoid having fees taken out.
As an additional incentive, the Marine Aquarium Society of Michigan (MASM) has agreed to donate a ticket to their upcoming conference, the Midwest Marine Conferrence. For each item you put in the reef auction or non-reef item in the Markeplace (ie. Garage Sale) designated as for "DLBerlin Benefit" will count as one entry into a random drawing for a raffle that we will have for the conference ticket.
To qualify for the drawing you must sell and submit the donation by Friday April 23. To accomplish this time frame, I recommend specifying a listing of 10 days or less in duration ....this is an option you specify when setting up the listing. This will allow time for the listing to run and for funds to be collected. Each item whose proceeds are received by Friday April 23 will then be entered int a drawing and the winner will be announced on April 25.
Feel free to ask any questions, if I can be of any help clearing up confusion.